Find Yourself
by AvocadoLove
Summary: Sequel to Lose Yourself. He was one a boy named Li, but now he's Zuko again... isn't he?
1. Chapter 1

**Notes: This is the long promised sequel to Lose Yourself. Please read that first, otherwise else this will make little sense. Each chapter will be short, but updated often. :)**

* * *

The stone cuffs were tightly molded against Zuko's wrists. He tried to flex his hands, pouring as much subtle heat as he could manage, but it's no use.

"Where are you taking me?" he demanded.

The two Dai Li agents flanking either side of him didn't answer. They only marched forward – steadily forward, through long green-lit corridors.

Zuko tried again. "I don't understand. What is my crime?"

There was still no answer, and Zuko grit his teeth. Through an effort of will, he held back his flame. He was still pretty sure at this point the Dai Li didn't know he was a firebender, or they would have taken Uncle, too.

And then there was that moment, late as the tea shop was closing, when he saw Pao the shop owner slipping a small coin pouch to a few agents – the whole city was corrupt.

When he got out of here, Zuko swore, he'd burn down that stupid tea shop himself. He didn't care what Uncle said about it._  
_  
The two Dai Li agents stopped him before a shadowed entrance-way. The door slid open; rock cuffs disengaging, but Zuko had no time to even think about fighting before he was spun and shoved backwards into a chair. More rock straps shot from the arms and legs, firmly binding him there.

"What is this?" he yelled and panic broke his voice. But before he could say anything more another strap covered his mouth.

A man in a low brimmed hat stood before him, hands clasped in parade stance behind his back. To the side, a lit lamp began to move.

And then…

* * *

.

.

.

* * *

... Zuko came to himself at last, staring into a pair of soft, blue eyes. Katara.

He jerked back with a shout of surprise – The fire came to him more out of instinct than malice, but even then it was nothing more than a hot flash. His hands were tied behind his back with a length of rope. Sokka—No,_ The Water Tribe boy_ insisted on it, and Li had agreed.

Li had trusted them, but he hadn't trusted Zuko.

The movement threw him off balance, and Zuko fell ungracefully from his perch on the fountain's edge and hit the stone floor, hard.

Someone barked out a laugh. Another voice cried out, "Li!" and there were hands on his shoulders, trying to turn him over.

"Not… Li…" he gritted out, and at once those hands were snatched back.

The memories rolled over Zuko – of another boy, sharing his body, his head, his face.

...Uncle, looking at him with those sad eyes. Plying him with different herbs, different remedies, different **anything** to bring him back.

...Azula, triumphant – first over him, then over all of Ba Sing Se. She took him home to his father and his father had… he had…

...The ministers and courtiers laughing at him...

...His father accepting tea from Li's tray. And the times when he sent it back, forcing Li to remake it – to re-serve him over and over again…

Fire, pure and white, leaped from Zuko's hands, still tied behind his back. The rope withered away to ashes. Zuko ran: stumbling, crawling when he fell, until he reached the edge of the temple floor and could go no further. Not without flinging himself off into the canyon below.

Clutching his head, Zuko screamed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Note: I did mention these chapters were going to be short, right? haha. **

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Zuko sat at the edge of the air temple ledge, his legs dangling out into space, a cup of cooling tea in his hand. The cup was part of a mismatched set – ugly and chipped – and he knew just from the smell alone that someone had let the water get too hot before steeping.

He hated how the scent of tea still relaxed him.

A bark of laughter echoed back from the other side of the floor: the Avatar and his friends chatting and joking around a badly lit fire. No one had tried to rebind his hands, and a few hours ago Katar—_the waterbender_ had called him over for supper. Zuko had ignored her and she hadn't offered again.

An hour after that, the little blind earthbender quietly walked over and handed him the teacup. She had said nothing, but he still thought he saw pity behind her filmy eyes.

He looked away.

Now, Zuko sat, alone and determinedly not thinking about the friends he'd made among the palace staff as a servant named Li. If were still there, he would be busy helping the rest of the staff with preparing the nightly meal for the royals and nobles; talking and laughing together like the Avatar and his friends were doing right now.

Zuko heard footsteps behind him – too heavy of a tread to be anyone but the Water Tribe boy. A moment later the other boy cleared his throat from behind him.

"So…."

"What do you want?" Zuko asked roughly, not turning his head to look at him.

There was a little bit of a pause, then, "Hey buddy, you're the one sitting on my favorite ledge." And as if to prove his words, the Water Tribe boy took a final bold step forward and sat down next to him.

Zuko rolled his eyes. It was obviously a lie, but he was simply too bone- weary to call him out on it. So he said nothing, letting the silence speak for him.

Eventually the Water Tribe boy sighed and said, "Look, I'm not going to beat around the blubber, here: we helped you out, and Aang has to have a firebending teacher. So I need to know if you're with us or against us."

A hot burst of anger flared up in Zuko's chest, although it wasn't directed at the Water Tribe boy. Not really. Zuko may have been playing the servant for the last few months, but some part of him still had his pride – wounded and bruised as it was. He turned at last, narrowing his good eye at the other teen.

"You _need_ me to teach the Avatar."

"Weeelllll," the other boy drawled, "we thought about trying to find Jeong-Jeong again, but he's…" he flipped a hand artlessly in the air, indicating the empty landscape before them and beyond. "And I figure, you might have a bone to pick with the Fire Lord."

Zuko flinched involuntarily as the memories of the last few months tried to bubble up again. He firmly clamped down on them, closing his eyes and breathing though his nose.

"Just think about it," the Water Tribe boy said, when Zuko didn't reply. He got up and turned to leave, but Zuko's answer stopped him.

"I'll do it."


End file.
